Police identify woman hit, killed by freight train in Chesapeake

CHESAPEAKE

Police have identified a woman who died Sunday after being hit by a freight train.

Lydia Mae Flight, 50, of the 1100 block of Commerce Ave., was trying to walk across the tracks when she was hit, police said. The incident was reported at 5:42 p.m. in the 1500 block of Liberty St., in Chesapeake’s South Norfolk neighborhood.

Railroad crossing arms were down and the lights were flashing as a Norfolk Southern freight train hauling coal approached Liberty Street, said Officer Justin Mathews, a spokesman for Chesapeake police.

The train sounded its horn, but Flight tried to cross the tracks and was hit, he said.

She died at a hospital. The crash remains under investigation.

Patrick Wilson, (757) 446-2957, patrick.wilson@pilotonline.com